Spirit of Aloha | Articles | Adventures in Dining | May 2000

Adventures in Dining
By John Heckathorn

Hawi Haven

Bamboo Restaurant occupies a two-story storefront that was originally a hotel.

After more than two decades in the Islands and numerous trips to the Big Island, I'd never been to Hawi. That's not entirely a surprise, since Hawi (popu- lation 972) is up Highway 270 on the little-traveled North Kohala Coast. It's about 20 miles past the old harbor village of Kawaihae, which in itself is farther than most visitors get.

Still, Hawi was always a place I wanted to see. And I was delighted when my friend Sophie, who lives even farther up the remote Kohala Coast, told me there was an excellent restaurant in Hawi town, called Bamboo. "Make a reservation," I told her over the phone. "I'll fly over this weekend."

When you fly to Hawai'i from the West Coast, you set your watch back three hours. When you fly to the Big Island and drive up to Hawi, you set your watch back 50 years.

It's the unspoiled Hawai'i, slowly turning itself into an uncrowded, picturesque artists' colony. And prominent on its main street is Bamboo Restaurant, in a two-story storefront originally built as a hotel.

From about 1911 to 1926, the hotel was the small town's center, serving dinners in the back room. The hotel kitchen was in the same place as it is today. In 1926, with the hotel out of business, a family called the Takatas transformed the building into a dry goods and grocery store.

When the Takatas built a modern store in 1991, the historic building got its third life. Owner Joan Channon put 16 months of restoration work into the Old Takata Store and it became Bamboo Restaurant & Gallery.

Wisely, much has been left the same. The exterior is the same dark green and the windows are still those of the Takata Store, advertising "Groceries, Cigars, Coca-Cola." Inside the post-and-lintel interior, there's a nice mix of the historic and the artistic. Rain-forest murals fill some walls, New Guinea shamans' nests hang from others. The oversize wicker chairs are from the old Moana Hotel in Waikiki, and the Fred Savage menus on the restaurant walls are authentic 1950s Matson menus from Hawai'i cruises.

It's a comfortable place for dinner or lunch or Sunday brunch. You can feel yourself relax as you sit down, and perhaps sip the house's signature passion fruit margarita.

The menu's a nice mix of local favorites - with the slight Asian-American accent people in Hawai'i have come to expect. There are some slam-bang flavors on the appetizer menu, from margaritaville prawns to kalua pig quesadillas. If you must choose just one, Bamboo's specialty is the plate of potstickers, a Chinese-style steamed ravioli, filled with Thai seasoned chicken, herbs and peanuts, hand-wrapped by Auntie Mary in the kitchen and served with a sweet chili mint sauce. There's a dab of green papaya salad on the plate as well.

If you are a light eater, or stopping by for lunch, you can't go wrong with Bamboo's Caesar salad - a familiar salad with a Big Island twist, since it's tossed with Kohala-grown macadamia nuts as well as garlic croutons. You'll want it topped with panko-crusted shrimp.

There's meat - from burgers to steaks - but since Hawi is not far from the coastal fisheries, it would be a shame to skip the local fish. We had mahimahi done in a "Hawai'i Thai" manner. That is, basted with coconut milk, lemongrass, ginger and chili pepper, grilled and served under a colorful heap of bean sprouts, peanuts, tomato and cilantro. This coupled with a vegetable medley of bell peppers, snow peas, broccoli and carrots, plus a wedge of pineapple and a black-sesame-dotted scoop of rice - all made for a colorful plate, with lots of fresh flavors.

From the small but well-selected wine list, we had a glass of Trefethen Eschol chardonnay. For dessert, you can't miss the locally made Tropical Dreams ice cream drizzled with passion fruit syrup. And the coffee, which is single-source Kona coffee, from Bong Brothers in Captain Cook.

Bamboo is a relaxing restaurant, and Hawi itself is not the kind of town that likes to hurry. After your meal, you can relax by strolling through the gallery next door and then all the little galleries - potters, painters, photographers, sculptors, furniture makers - that now dot the main street, in reconditioned storefronts and service stations.

Bamboo Restaurant & Gallery
Akoni Pule Highway
Hawi, Hawai'i
808-889-5555
www.bamboorestaurant.com
Lunch Tuesday-Saturday 11:30 a.m.-2:30 p.m.
Sunday brunch 11 a.m.-2 p.m.
dinner Tuesday-Saturday 6-9 p.m.
Free parking, major credit cards, reservations suggested.

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